:ow  the  litest  has  llloved  on: 


AN   ADDRESS, 

DELIVERED    AT 

LINCOLN,  SEPTEMBER  27,  1877, 

ni  i;ix<;  THE 

3+> 


ta,te 


And    upon   the   invitation   of  the   State    Board    of  Agriculture, 
BY 


OK   THK   CHICAGO   TIMES. 


MARTIN  DUNHAM,  I'HESIDEKT, 
Omaha. 


.IAMKS  \V.  MOORE,  TREASFIIEK.  I).  H.  WHEELER,  SECKKTAKV. 

!  "**  voinvieu-ii  nt\'  Plattsiuoi 


Nebraska  City. 


1 


Plattsmouth.        Ci 


H 


J     K    HONEYWELL,  CH'N,  Lincoln.  CHRIS.  HARTMAN.  Omaha. 

C.  II.  NV1NSLOW.  :Mt.  Pleasant.  H.  W.  FFKNAS,  Urownville. 


I 
.].  F.  KINNEV.  Nebraska  City. 


r,\  TIIK 
NEBRASKA    STATE   BOARD   OF    AGRICULTURE. 


-^^^^^^^^^!f^=^^^^  |      I 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


low  the Ifflest  has  flloved  on 

J  'TT  c^llD 

AN  ADDRESS, 


DELIVERED   AT 


LINCOLN,    SEPTEMBER   27,  1877, 


DURINU   THE 


And  up»n  tlic  Invitation  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture, 

BY 

PROF.  RODNEY  WELCH, 

OF   THE    CHICAGO   TIMES. 


MARTIN  DUNHAM,  PRESIDENT, 
Omaha. 


JAMES  W.  MOORE,  TREASURER. 

Nebraska  Citv. 


D.  H.  WHEELER,  SECRETARY, 
Plattsmouth 


JiOAKD  OF  MANAGERS. 


J.  K.  HONEYWELL,  CH'N.  Lincolu. 
C'.  II.  WINSLOW,  Mt.  Pleasant. 


CHRIS  HARTMAN,  Omaha. 
R.  W.  FURNAS,   Brownville. 


J.  F.  KINNEY,  Nebraska  City. 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

NEBRASKA  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE. 
1877 


ADDRESS. 


HOW  THE  WEST  HAS  MOVED  ON. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

During  my  childhood,  passed  on  a  rocky  hill-side  farm  in  the 
Pine-Tree  state,  an  event  occurred  which  left  a  lasting  impression 
on  my  memory.  It  was  the  departure  from  the  neighborhood  of 
a  family  for  the  then  far  west,  the  northern  portion  of  the  state 
of  Illinois.  The  head  of  the  family  was  a  restless,  uneasy  man  who 
believed  there  was  no  place  like  one  a  long  way  from  his  native  home 
He  had  sought  by  various  occupations  and  in  several  places  to 
better  his  condition  with  only  indifferent  success.  His  heart  was 
always  in  some  imaginary  highlands,  far  removed  from  the  hills 
within  his  view.  He  loved  nothing  so  well  as  to  talk  with  sailors 
and  to  read  books  of  travels.  On  one  occasion  he  went  to  a  sea- 
board town  to  exchange  some  russet  apples  for  codfish,  then,  as  now, 
a  staple  article  of  diet  in  old  New  England.  While  there  he  met  a 
miner  who  had  just  returned  from  the  Black  Hills  of  those  days,  the 
lead-bearing  cliffs  about  Galena.  From  him  he  learned  of  the  mar- 
velous beauty  and  fertility  of  the  valley  of  the  .Rock  river  in  Illinois. 
He  came  back  and  immediately  began  to  set  his  house  out  of 
order.  He  found  a  picture  of  a  prairie  schooner  in  Olney's  geog- 
raphy, and  gave  an  order  to  a  wheelwright  to  construct  one.  Then 
he  sought  to  trade  his  oxen  and  cows  for  a  span  of  horses.  As 
people  heard  of  his  proposed  adventure,  they  began  to  remonstrate 
with  him;  they  declared  the  Journey  too  long  and  hazardous  to  be 
undertaken  by  a  delicate  woman  and  young  children.  They  in- 
formed him  that  the  country  abounded  with  ague,  poisonous 
plants,  rattlesnakes,  savage  beasts,  and  yet  more  savage  men. 
Farmer  Greeley  had  not  then  spoken  the  words  that  did  so  much 
toward  settling  up  the  prairies,  but  this  man  had  resolved  "  to  go 
west  and  grow  up  with  the  country."  He  vowed  that  he  never 
would  pick  stones  another  day  in  his  life  nor  spend  another  winter 
in  a  place  where  there  were  u  six  weeks  sleighing  in  March." 

When  people  saw  that  remonstrances  were  in  vain  they  began 
to  consider  what  could  be  done  to  provide  for  the  temporal  and 


religious  wants  of  the  family.  Books  devoted  to  morality,  articles 
of  clothing,  and  bottles  of  medicine,  were  sent  in  without  stint. 
When  tlie  morning  for  the  departure  came,  a  meeting,  pre- 
viously announced,  was  held  in  the  old  church,  situated  as  many 
ancient  churches  in  New  England  are,  at  the  rear  of  a  grave- 
yard, in  order  to  present  a  cheerful  appearance.  Every  seat  was 
filled,  the  family  of  adventurers  occupying  the  front  pew,  ordin- 
arily reserved  for  mourners  at  a  funeral.  The  minister,  a  grave 
and  solemn  man,  opened  the  exercises  by  reading  an  account  ot 
the  departure  of  the  Israelites  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  In  re- 
marks that  followed  the  scripture  lesson,  he  stated  that  the  journey 
about  to  be  undertaken  by  the  people  betore  him,  was  longer  than 
that  from  Goshen  to  the  Valley  of  the  Jordan,  and  promised  to 
be  more  perilous  than  the  voyage  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers.  After 
a  doleful  hymn  had  been  sung  the  entire  congregation  knelt  in 
prayer  for  the  preservation  of  the  people  who  were  taking  their 
final  leave.  When  they  had  been  assisted  to  enter  their  canvas  cov- 
ered wagon  the  women  presented  the  mother  with  a  bible,  while 
a  man  possessed  of  more  worldly  wisdom  than  piety  handed  the 
father  a,  double-barreled  gun  and  powder-flask.  Finally,  we  bash- 
ful boys  brought  our  offerings  of  primroses,  lilacs,  and  sweet  ferns 
and  gave  them  to  the  pale-faced  little  gins  whose  eyes  were  moist 
with  tears.  Then  the  strange-looking  vehicle  started  over  the 
western  hills,  and  the  people  repaired  to  their  homes  as  mourners 
return  from  the  burial  of  a  friend. 

WHERE  IS  THE  WEST  OF  TO  DAY? 

It  is  no  longer  on  the  banks  of  the  Rock,    the   Mississippi,  the 
Des  Moines  or  the  Missouri, — it  is  following  the  course  of  the 

O 

Platte  and  Kansas  to  their  mountain  sources.  Men  who  moved 
4 'out  west"  from  Massachusetts  and  New  York  a  few  years  ago 
now  find  themselves  "  away  down  east,"  I  was  in  Western  Kan- 
sas a  few  years  ago,  and  heard  a  farmer  complain  of  the  cost  of 
moving  crops  to  an  eastern  market.  I  asked  him  where  the 
•eastern  market  was,  and  he  gave  me  the  name  of  a  town  upon 
the  Mississippi  river.  I  realized  then  that  the  words  East  and 
West,  like  the  words  heat  and  cold,  were  relative,  not  absolute, 
terms.  The  frontier  line  has  been  moving  westward  at  the  rate 
of  five  degrees  for  every  decade.  To-day  the  shepherd  tends  his 
flock  on  the  prairie  where  the  wandering  Indian  pursued  the 
buffalo  a  few  months  ago.  The  wild  fowls  leave  a  secluded  spot 


in  the  fall  to  migrate  to  a  milder  climate;  they  return  in  the 
spring  and  find  the  place  dotted  over  with  white  cabins.  Some 
new  settlers  took  advantage  of  their  brief  absence  and  "jumped  their 
claims."  Were  some  Rip  Yan  Winkle  to  indulge  in  a  two  years' 
sleep  on  a  western  prairie  he  would  not  recognize  the  place  when 
he  awoke.  Every  thing  would  have  changed  more  in  this  brief 
time  than  they  changed  during  twenty  years  in  that  sleepy  Dutch 
town  at  the  foot  of  the  Catskills,  which  was  immortalized  by  the 
genius  of  Irving.  Villages  succeeded  hamlets,  towns  became 
cities,  with  such  wonderful  rapidity  that  maps  and  census  tables 
afford  but  little  information  of  the  development  of  the  country. 
As  your  guest,  I  rejoice  with  you  in  the  prosperity  of  this  new 
state.  I  see  before  me  the  men  who  turned  the  first  furrows, 
sowed  the  first  grain  and  gathered  the  first  harvest  in  this  beauti- 
ful region.  I  behold  the  men  who  caught  the  winged  seed  that 
were  flying  in  the  air  from  which  have  sprung  trees  as  beautiful,  if 
not  as  stately,  as  the  cedars  of  Lebanon.  I  see  the  men  who 
planted  the  first  orchards  on  this  side  of  the  Missouri,  whose  fruit 
at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  was  the  ad  miration  of  representatives 
of  forty  states  and  territories,  as  well  as  from  fifty  foreign  nations. 
Persons  listen  to  my  poor  words  who  saw  cities  spring  from  the 
earth,  not  at  the  music  of  a  harp,  but  at  the  harsh  sound  of  ham- 
mers. I  speak  to  men  who  brought  hither  in  prairie  schooners 
the  first  few  pecks  of  grain  whose  increase  has  filled  fleets  of 
vessels  bound  for  lands  across  the  sea.  I  am.  with  the  herdsmen 
who  drove  the  first  stock  to  this  vast  pasture,  supplied  with  salt 
as  well  as  water  by  the  bounty  of  nature,  whose  cattle  on  a  single 
prairie  outnumber  those  the  old  Patriarch  saw  on  the  thousand 
hills  of  distant  Judea.  Nebraska,  a  tottering  child  in  years,  is  a 
full  grown  giant  in  strength  and  development. 

THE    IMPORT    OF    THESE    CHANGES. 

What  does  this  surpassing  progress  imply  ?  That  the  whole  coun 
try  is  increasing  in  wealth,  prosperity,  and  population?  Not  at  all. 
Omaha  goes  up  because  Salem  goes  down.  Valley  farms  are 
opened  in  Nebraska  for  the  reason  that  hill  farms  are  abandoned 
in  Massachusetts.  Lands  in  the  new  West  rise  in  value  in  the 
ratio  that  lands  in  the  old  East  fall  in  value.  Men  come  here  be- 
cause they  leave  there.  They  choose  to  "go  west  and  grow  up 
with  the  country  "  rather  than  stay  in  the  East  arid  go  down  with 


the  country.  As  wheat  fields  extend  back  from  the  banks  of  the 
Missouri  they  recede  from  the  shores  ot  the  Atlantic.  As  your 
corn  fields  encroach  on  the  domains  of  the  buffalo,  trees  and  bushes 
enroach  on  the  fields  long  planted  with  cultivated  crops  on  the 
Eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghanies.  As  the  acreage  in  plants  used 
for  human  food  increases  in  the  valley  of  the  Platte  and  Elkhorn, 
it  steadily  decreases  in  the  valley  of  the  JVlerrirnac  and  Roanoke. 
During  the  decade  in  which  Nebraska  more  than  quadrupled  its 
inhabitants,  five  states  once  as  prosperous  as  this  saw  their  pop- 
ulation diminish.  The  men  who  came  here  to  seek  fresh  fields  and 
pastures  new,  left  behind  exhausted  fields  and  pastures  old.  Dur- 
ing the  years  in  which  this  new  state  received  golden  medals  for 
her  golden  apples,  that  old  orchard  country  which  furnished  cider 
to  the  boys  who  beat  back  the  British  regulars  in  1776,  almost 
ceased  to  produce  fruit.  Fortunate  it  was  that  Nebraska  in  1869 
produced  one  thousand  seven  hundred  twenty-nine  bushels  of 
wheat  for  each  hundred  of  her  people,  for  Rhode  Island,  once  a 
wheat-exporting  state,  raised  only  three-tenths  of  a  bushel  for 
each  hundred  of  her  people,  possibly  a  grain  for  each  individual. 
Well  was  it  that  during  th&  last  decade  the  number  of  farms  in- 
creased in  the  Western  states,  in  Illinois,  59.493;  in  Iowa,  55.129; 
and  in  Kansas,  27.802;  for  during  that  period  the  number  of  im- 
proved farms  decreased  in  several  of  the  Eastern  states,  in  Rhode 
Island,  38;  in  New  Hampshire,  859;  and  in  Massachusetts,  9.101. 
Honor  to  the  son  of  Nebraska  who  instituted  "  Arbor  Day," 
for  the  sons  of  Maine  have  destroyed  their  magnificent  forests  to 
such  an  extent  that  Pennsylvania  coal  is  used  for  warming  farm- 
houses. 

A  LESSON  FKOM  THE  PAST. 

The  people  in  all  newly-settled  sections  of  the  country  are 
prone  to  indulge  in  the  pleasant  conceit  that  there  was  never  a 
soil  so  productive  as  that  they  cultivate.  The  farmers  in  the  pre- 
sent granary  of  this  country,  seemingly  forget  about  the  vessels 
Washington  once  loaded  with  the  product  of  his  estate,  and 
the  broad  wheat-fields  on  the  Schuyler  farm,  that  were  burned, 
lest  they  should  supply  an  invading  army  with  bread.  There, 
are  old  negroes  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  who  have  reached 
higher  to  "  shuck"  the  ears  of  golden  maize  than  any  men  were 
ever  required  to  reach  in  doing  the  same  work  on  this  side  of 


the  Missouri.  There  are  young  men  in  the  valley  of  the  Genesee 
and  Shenandoah,  who  have  cut  with  a  sickle  larger  crops  of  wheat 
than  were  ever  harvested  by  the  reaper  in  the  valley  of  the 
Platte  or  Arkansas.  More  potatoes  to  the  acre;  and  larger  pump- 
kins, as  measured  by  the  tape^ine,  have  been  gathered  from  the 
hill-sides  along  the  Kennebec,  than  were  ever  grown  on  the 
plains  by  the  Neosho. 

Among  the  wasted,  desolated  sections  of  the  East,  grand  in  colo- 
nial history,  one  may  see  the  evidences  of  former  agricultural 
wealth.  There  stand  the  ruined  mansions  erected  by  the  price  of 
food  products  exported  to  the  West  Indies.  Luxury  once  rioted 
on  the  produce  of  fruitful  fields,  where  gaunt  famine  stalks  to- 
day. Hospitality  extended  a  generous  welcome  to  many  a 
splendid  abode,  which  the  tramp  and  beggar  now  pass  by,  as  too 
dilapidated  to  afford  the  promise  of  a  crust  of  bread.  The  nettle, 
thistle,  and  cockle-bur  thrfve  in  the  gardens  where  the  Cavaliers 
planted  rare  exotics  a  century  ago;  and  the  owl  hoots  in  cham- 
bers that  once  resounded  with  the  strains  of  melody.  Rains  have 
washed  away  the  terraces  built  in  front  of  beautiful  villas  over- 
looking the  sea,  and  wild  beasts  devour  their  prey  in  cellars  once 
stocked  with  the  richest  vintage  of  the  Madeiras. 

There  are  men  now  living  who  remember  the  time  when  each 
of  the  New  England  States  produced  sufficient  corn  and  grain  to 
supply  the  inhabitants.  There  are  comparatively  young  men 
who  were  engaged  in  early  life  in  driving  beeves  from  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire  to  the  markets  of  Montreal  and  Quebec.  On  a 
recent  visit  to  one  of  those  states,  I  was  asked  to  express  my 
preference  for  Texas  or  Canadian  beef,  as  the  market  was  supplied 
with  both.  This  was  in  a  town  which  my  grandfather  colonized, 
and  where  not  only  he,  but  nearly  all  the  early  settlers,  amassed 
very  respectable  fortunes  by  legitimate  farming.  Their  great 
mansions  yet  stand  on  the  summits  of  hills,  monuments  of  the 
former  agricultural  wealth  of  the  country.  They  reared  large 
families;  erected  great  churches;  endowed  institutions  of  learning; 
and  became  wealthy  by  exporting  grain,  fruit,  vegetables,  and 
meat. 

A  time  came,  however,  when  an  occasional  grist  of  North 
River,  Yellow-flat,  or  Horse-tooth  corn,  was  ground  in  country 
mills.  At  first,  these  strange-looking  kernels  attracted  great  at- 


8 

tention,  and  were  often  taken  home  by  patrons  of  the  mills  as  cu- 
riosities to  delight  the  eyes  of  children.  But,  at  length,  they  be- 
came very  common,  and  little  girls  no  longer  used  them  instead 
of  beads  to  adorn  their  necks.  Then  came  flour  from  the 
famous  valley  of  the  Genesee,  and  the  people  supposed  it  would 
continue  to  come  from  there.  But  the  years  were  not  many  be- 
fore the  Genesee  called  on  the  Miami,  the  Miami  on  the  Wabash, 
the  Wabash  on  the  Sangamon,  and  the  Sangamon  on  the  Des 
Moines  for  bread.  Corn,  oats,  cotton,  and  tobacco,  as  well  as 
"  the  plant  of  civilization,"  like  the  people  who  once  raised  these 
crops  on  the  Eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghanies,  have  been  con- 
stantly moving  West. 

WILL    THE    WEST    TAKE    WARNING? 

Even  the  older  sections  of  the  fertile  West  are  passing  into  a 
state  of  decline  in  the  production  of  crops.  No  state  east  of  Il- 
linois now  produces  sufficient  wheat  to*  supply  the  inhabitants,  if 
indeed  any  produces  sufficient  meat.  Six  years  ago  I  attended  a 
farmers'  convention  in  Wisconsin,  and  the  subject  which  received 
the  most  attention  was  the  restoration  of  fertility  to  worn-out 
lands.  Mr.  Bateham,  of  Ohio,  in  a  recent  communication  to  the 
Country  Gentleman,  recites  that  many  of  the  dairy  farms  in  his 
state,  which  twenty  years  ago  supported  twenty -five  cows,  are  able 
to  sustain  but  ten  at  the  present  time. 

What  has  become  of  that  marvelous  fertility  which,  in  the  re- 
mote or  recent  past,  produced  such  wonderful  crops  of  cereals, 
grass,  cotton,  and  tobacco?  Sold  in  the  half-bushel,  bale,  or  hogs- 
head; hauled  to  the  nearest  station  or  landing;  transported  by 
railroad  or  steamer;  devoured,  worn  out,  or  burned  in  domestic 
cities,  or  shipped  across  the  seas.  While  our  lands  have  -been 
growing  poorer,  those  in  almost  every  country  in  Europe  have 
been  growing  richer.  During  the  period  that  the  yield  of  wheat 
per  acre  in  New  York  decreased  one-half,  the  yield  of  the  same 
grain  in  England  was  doubled. 

Shall  the  history  of  American  agriculture  repeat  itself  here? 
Will  the  time  come,  in  the  existence  of  persons  now  living,  when 
cattle  will  be  driven  from  Idaho  and  wheat  be  brought 
from  Oregon  to  feed  the  inhabitants  of  manufacturing  villages 
along  the  banks  of  the  Platte  ?  Will  the  readers  of  Omaha  pa- 
pers, a  century  hence,  find  Nebraska  farms  advertised  for  sale 


for  less  than  half  the  cost  of  the  improvements?  Will  the  title, 
"  Great  American  Desert,"  be  again  applied  to  a  large  portion  of 
the  territory  of  this  fair  state?  Will  it,  must  it,  come  to  pass 
in  a  round  of  years,  that  some  traveler  from  New  England  shall 
take  his  stand  on  the  broken  trunk  of  a  cultivated  cottonwood  to 
sketch  the  ruins  of  deserted  homes? 

Time  alone  can  tell.  If  the  farmers  in  the  new  West  pursue 
the  same  course  that  has  been  pursued  by  farmers  in  the  old  East, 
they  must  reasonably  expect  the  same  results.  In  everything 
the  future  will  reproduce  the  past,  the  circumstances  being  the 
same.  The  laws  of  nature,  unlike  those  of  states  and  municipali- 
ties, are  self-executing.  You  cannot  rob  the  soil  as  men  do  a 
savings  bank,  and  expect  to  escape  punishment.  It  is  very  easy 
to  raise  money  by  the  sale  of  buffalo  bones  and  successive  crops 
of  wheat,  but  very  difficult  to  replace  the  treasures  that  have  been 
removed.  The  fanners  in  nearly  every  new  section  are  so  fond  of 
declaring  large  and  frequent  dividends  that  they  are  very  likely  to 
destroy  all  their  capital. 

OTHER    MODES    OF    EXHAUSTION. 

But  there  are  other  ways  of  destroying  the  value  of  lands,  that 
are  infinitely  worse  than  continued  croppings.  A  note  bearing 
ten  per  cent,  interest  will  exhaust  the  resources  of  a  farm  faster 
than  successive  crops  of  tobacco  and  wheat.  A  mill-stone  may  not 
be  a  comfortable  thing  to  have  about  one's  neck,  but  the  choice 
between  that  and  a  cut-throat  or  slip-noose  mortgage  is  very  slight. 
Creditors  are  harder  to  fight  than  prairie  fires.  Grasshoppers 
are  not  liable  to  come  every  year,  but  interest  coupons  put  in  an 
appearance  with  absolute  regularity.  Better  have  a  dug-out,  with 
content  and  a  clear  title,  than  a  villa,  whose  plate-glass  win- 
dows are  darkened  by  a  mortgage.  Hope  prompts  a  man  to  con- 
tract debts,  but  fear  pursues  him  till  they  are  paid.  The  farmer 
who  raises  a  loan  in  order  to  improve  his  estate,  generally  impov- 
erishes it  in  order  to  remove  the  indebtedness.  The  tempta- 
tion to  possess  all  the  land  within  sight  was  first  held  out  by  an 
individual  whose  reputation  none  of  us  are  ambitious  to  acquire. 

METHODS    OF    EXHAUSTING    COMMUNITIES. 

Objectionable  as  is  the  practice  common  in  all  new  sections  of 
the  country,  of  encumbering  private  property,  the  custom  of 
loading  communities  with  debts  is  infinitely  worse.  An  individ- 
ual has  the  undoubted  right,  however  injudicious  the  act  may  be, 


10 

of  mortgaging  his  own  land.  One  may  do  as  he  chooses  with  his 
own;  when  it  comes  to  encumbering  all  the  property  that  is  and 
is  to  be  in  a  sparsely  settled  school  district,  township,  county,  or 
state,  the  case  is  different.  Our  fathers  went  to  war  with  Eng- 
land because  they  were  taxed  without  being  represented.  "W  ho 
represent  the  persons  who  will  be  taxed  to  pay  the  bonds  of  some 
frontier  county  in  this  state,  due  forty  years  hence?  The  men 
who  contracted  the  debts  and  who  used  the  money  will  all  be  dead 
or  gone  to  vote  bonds  in  some  county  the  other  side  of  the 
Rocky  mountains. 

It  has  in  all  times  been  regarded  as  an  enormity  to  rob  the 
dead — persons  who  have  left  the  world — but  is  it  not  quite  as 
heinous  to  rob  the  unborn — innocents  who  have  not  yet  come  in- 
to the  world?  What  right  have  any  people  to  erect  public  build- 
ings, subsidize  railroads,  lay  sidewalks,  purchase  libraries,  build 
bridges  and  grade  turnpikes  and  charge  up  the  accounts  with 
compound  interest  to  men  whose  mothers  are  sleeping  in  cradles? 
Long  before  these  prospective  taxpapers  are  old  enough  to  derive 
any  benefit  from  them,  the  buildings  will  be  in  decay,  the  rail- 
roads in  bankruptcy,  the  sidewalks  in  the  mud,  the  books  in  rag- 
bags,  the  bridges  in  ruins,  while  the  turnpike  will  be  abandoned 
or  washed  away. 

I  sympathize  with  the  tender  boy  infant  who  learns,  on  arriving 
at  the  age  of  consciousness,  that,  in  addition  to  suffering  from 
teething,  having  the  mumps,  measles,  chicken-pox,  and  the  whole 
round  of  infantile  diseases,  he  must  devote  many  of  the  best  years 
of  his  future  life  to  earning  money  to  pay  the  debts  that  some 
other  boys'  grandfathers  contracted.  It  will  be  no  marvel  if  he  is 
a  troublesome  child,  and  frets,  in  view  of  having  to  pay  for  a  court- 
house occupied  and  ruined  by  politicians  in  a  previous  century. 

CHARACTER  OF  PUBLIC  IMPROVEMENTS. 

It  is  wise  and  well  for  a  community,  even  if  it  is  a  newly  set- 
tled one,  to  have  fair  town  and  county  buildings,  churches,  and 
school-houses,  providing  the  people  are  able  to  erect  them  with- 
out injustice  to  their  individual  needs  and  comforts.  It  is  not 
the  part  of  wisdom,  however,  to  erect  public  edifices  vastly  supe- 
rior to  those  occupied  as  dwellings.  If  this  be  done  it  will  not  af- 
ford an  evidence  of  thrift  and  prosperity,  but  of  public  prodigality. 
An  enterprising  town  is  not  necessarily  one  that  is  able  to  borrow 


11 

more  money  than  it  has  property,  both  public  and  private,  but  one 
where  the  people  are  content  to  live  within  their  income  and  who 
pay  as  they  buy  and  build. 

I  once  stood  on  the  gilded  dome  of  a  towering  court-house  in 
an  adjoining  state  and  looked  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  over  a 
succession  of  huts  of  turf  and  shanties  of  rough  boards.  But  the 
sight  pleased  me  not.  I  liked  better  what  I  saw  in  a  neighboring 
county,  where  the  people  met  to  worship,  administer  justice  and 
transact  public  business  in  an  unpretending  wooden  building, 
that,  ere  this,  has  probably  been  converted  into  a  warehouse  or 
livery  stable.  I  learned  that  the  first  county  had  an  empty  treas- 
ury, though  the  vault  in  the  court-house  was  capacious,  fire  and 
burglar-proof,  a  large  floating  debt,  and  a  bonded  indebtedness 
of  a  fourth  of  a  million  dollars,  while  the  second  county  had  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars  in  its  treasury,  had  no  outstanding  obliga- 
tions, had  never  issued  a  bond,  and  never  intended  to  issue  one. 

I  know  not  how  Nebraska  is  situated  in  this  respect,  but  I 
notice  that  Kansas  has  established  an  unenviable  reputation  in  the 
matter  of  county  and  municipal  indebtedness.  I  read  not  long 
since,  as  probably  most  of  you  did,  how  the  free  and  enlightened 
citizens  of  one  town,  fearing  that  its  creditors  would  seize  prop- 
erty to  satisfy  judgments  obtained  for  overdue  bonds,  quietly 
placed  the  burg,  or  rather  the  buildings  that  composed  it,  on 
wheels,  drew  the  precious  load  to  a  piece  of  raw  prairie,  and  there 
dumped  it  off.  The  creditors  were  surprised  as  well  as  enraged 
the  next  morning  to  find  that  the  town  had  run  away,  leaving 
nothing  behind  but  its  debts.  The  example  of  these  enterprising 
people  will  serve  as  a  solemn  warning  to  all  bloated  bondholders 
not  to  loan  their  money  to  a  wooden  town,  lest  haply  it  takes  to 
itself  wheels  and  rolls  away. 

Eaiiroads  are  very  convenient  things,  but  it  does  not  pay  farm- 
ers to  build  one  and  give  it  to  some  corporation  that  will  man- 
age it  to  the  detriment  of  the  people  that  live  along  the  line. 
Many  counties  in  Kansas  that  are  repudiating  their  bonds  have 
found  this  out  to  their  sorrow,  it  adds  to  the  value  of  real-estate 
and  to  the  price  of  farm  products  to  have  a  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment located  in  the  vicinity.  But  if  it  can  only  be  obtained 
by  the  payment  of  a  large  bonus  or  subsidy  it  will  be  better  to 
dispense  with  the  luxury.  A  college  or  seminary  may  be  of 
great  advantage  to  a  town;  but  if  the  citizens  pay  so  much  to  se- 


12 

cure  its  location  that  they  cannot  afford  to  send  their  children  to 
school;  the  institution  will  do  them  little  good. 

Eailroads  will  come,  manufactures  will  be  erected,  and  colleges 
will  be  established  without  subsidies,  as  soon  as  there  is  sufficient 
patronage  to  support  them.  At  the  close  of  the  late  war  a  circus 
clown,  performing  in  a  southern  city,  gave  this  caution  to  the 
negroes  who  were  listening  to  his  jokes:  ';  Don't  all  try  to  be 
white  men  in  a  minute."  Many  a  frontier  town  requires  to  be 
warned  against  attempting  to  be  like  Boston  in  a  day. 

HAVE  WE  THE  RIGHT  TO  BOAST? 

As  a  people  we  have  been  very  boastful  of  our  growth  and 
progress  in  material  affairs.  We  devoted  our  centennial  year  to 
bragging.  We  declared  in  song  and  speech  that  no  nation  had 
ever  amassed  so  much  wealth  in  so  short  a  time.  By  implication 
we  claimed  our  prosperity  as  the  result  of  our  peculiar  institu- 
tions, or  as  the  fruit  of  our  thrift,  industry,  and  enterprise.  We 
counted  over  how  many  new  states  had  been  added  to  the  old 
thirteen.  We  showed  how  much  new  territory  had  been  opened 
up  to  settlement.  We  made  an  inventory  of  everything  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  country  and  credited  ourselves  with  having 
produced  it. 

Some  future  historian  or  social  scientist  may  take  an  altogether 
different  view  of  how  our  wealth  was  acquired,  and  may  claim 
that  we  have  simply  appropriated  the  bounties  of  nature.  Some 
unborn  Gibbon  may  recount  how  we  passed  over  the  fairest  land 
in  the  world,  like  Goths  and  Vandals,  taking  to  ourselves  or  de- 
stroying, not  what  other  men  had  produced,  but  what  God  had 
made.  It  is  certainly  very  easy  to  account  for  our  physical  pros- 
perity on  the  ground  of  fortuitous  circumstances,  and  to  show 
that  our  advancement  in  material  affairs  is  due  almost  entirely  to 
physical  causes. 

What  was  the  character  of  the  climate,  soil  and  natural  produc- 
tions of  the  land  our  fathers  settled  and  their  descendants  have 
been  taking  possession  of  ?  As  a  rule,  the  average  rain-fall  is 
neither  much  greater  nor  much  less  than  what  is  desired.  There 
has  not  been  a  season  since  the  country  was  first  settled  that  a 
fair  crop  of  farm  products  has  not  been  raised.  There  are  very  few 
natural  malarial  districts  in  the  entire  country.  The  soil  is 
fertile  almost  beyond  comparison.  In  the  South  a  bale  of  cotton 
or  a  ton  of  choice  tobacco  could  be  produced  on  an  acre,  while 


13 

in  the  North  fifty  bushels  of  wheat  or  seventy  of  corn  were 
the  ordinary  yield  of  the  same  area  of  land.  The  forests  contain 
almost  everything  valuable  in  the  line  of  trees.  One  yields  a 
bark  that  can  be  made  into  boats  which  are  water-tight  and  so 
light  that  they  may  be  carried  on  the  head,  while  several  afford  a 
most  delicious  sugar.  Some  supply  material  for  tanning,  others 
pitch,  tar  and  turpentine,  and  still  others  furnish  the  best  ship 
timber  ever  discovered.  The  leaves  of  some  and  the  bark  of 
others  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  Forests  of  equal  value 
have  rarely  if  ever  been  found. 

The  soil  and  climate  were  adapted  not  only  to  all  the  cultivated 
crops  of  Europe  but  to  many  others.  A  great  variety  of  valuable 
indigenous  plants  were  found,  some  wild,  others,  as  corn  and 
tobacco,  cultivated  by  the  natives.  Tobacco  was  in  immediate  and 
extensive  demand  in  Europe  at  almost  fabulous  prices.  No  crop 
is  of  as  much  value  to  new  settlers  as  Indian  corn.  A  handful 
of  seed  will  produce  grain  enough  to  supply  a  person  with  excel- 
lent food  for  a  year.  No  country  was  ever  discovered  containing 
so  many  desirable  plants  as  the  territory  embraced  in  the  United 
States. 

The  forests  as  well  as  the  grassy  plains  teemed  with  game  of 
every  description — enough  on  each  square' mile  to  fill  Noah's  ark: 
There  was  scarcely  an  animal  not  valuable  for  food  that  was  not 
valuable  for  its  fur.  The  first  cargoes  of  furs  sent  to  England 
brought  very  high  prices.  Even  to-day  an  expert  hunter  or 
trapper  can  gain  a  good  livelihood  and  lay  up  money  anywhere 
on  the  frontier  by  following  the  occupation  of  Daniel  Boone  or 
his  remote  ancestor  Nim rod.  In  addition  to  all  the  wild  animals, 
the  woods  in  many  parts  of  the  country  were  full  of  hogs,  while 
the  great  plains  swarmed  with  cattle  and  horses,  the  progeny 
of  those  brought  over  by  the  early  Spanish  explorers. 

Such  finny  wealth  as  this  country  possessed  was  never  known 
since  the  time  those  favored  fishermen  drew  their  nets  at  the 
command  of  their  Master.  The  water  along  the  coast  was  liter- 
ally alive  with  cod,  hake,  mackerel,  halibut,  herring  and  blue  fish. 
During  the  spring  the  rivers  swarmed  with  salmon  and  shad — 
dainties  fit  to  set  be  Tore  the  king.  At  least  a  dozen  varieties  of 
excellent  fish  were  found  in  all  the  lakes,  while  trout  almost 
without  number  sported  in  the  little  brooks. 


14 

The  territory  of  the  United  States  is  exceedingly  well  adapted 
to  commerce.  Although  occupying  the  central  portion  of  a 
continent,  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  frontier  are  the  shores  of 
oceans  or  navigable  lakes.  Its  ocean  coast  represents  a  distance 
of  more  than  half  the  circumference  of  the  earth.  If  we  add  to 
Ibis  the  length  of  the  coast  ot  the  great  lakes  and  the  length  of 
the  rivers  that  may  be  navigated,  we  have  a  distance  about  twice 
that  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe.  In  many  parts  of  the 
country  there  is  a  choice  of  two  or  three  river  routes,  each  run- 
ning in  a  different  direction. 

Portions  of  this  territory,  so  healthful,  so  fertile,  so  well  watered 
by  the  rains  of  heaven  and  the  rivers  of  earth,  so  well  supplied 
with  timber,  so  well  stocked  with  fish,  game  and  animals,  waiting 
to  be  re-domesticated,  and  withal  so  well  adapted  to  inland  and 
foreign  commerce,  have  during  all  our  history  been  at  the  dis- 
posal of  every  one  who  chose  to  move  upon  them.  The  maximum 
price  of  our  public  lands  has  been  $1.25  per  acre,  while  in  point 
of  fact  most  of  our  national  domain  has  been  given  away. 

There  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  people  should  not  be 
land-owners  when  every  one  can  have  a  plantation  by  claiming  it. 
Why  should  not  every  man  have  as  many  horses  as  Bonner  or 
•Solomon,  when  he  has  naught  to  do  but  to  catch  them  with  a' 
lasso  and  brand  them  as  his  own  (  Why  .should  not  the  wish 
of  the  French  king,  that  every  peasant  have  a  chicken  in  his 
pot,  be  verified  in  a  region  where  better  chickens  than  he  ever 
dreamed  of  run  in  flocks  through  the  waving  grass  ?  Why  should 
we  not  eat  more  beef  than  the  English  do,  when  we  have  only  to 
spot  an  animal  and  shoot  it  at  sight '( 

Young  as  our  country  is,  and  rich  as  it  was  in  natural  resources 
of  every  kind,  it  is  to-day  presenting  many  evidences  of  decline 
in  prosperity.  Immigration  has  nearly  stopped  and  emigration 
has  begun.  The  papers  of  Great  Britain  speak  of  the  large 
number  of  settlers  arriving  there  from  America.  Contractors 
find  it  to  their  advantage  to  engage  mechanics  in  New  York  and 
to  pay  their  passage  across  the  Atlantic.  Once  remittances  from 
this  country  to  Ireland  and  Germany  were  constant.  Now7  in 
many  sections  of  the  country  the  matter  is  reversed  The 
persons  who-  remained  at  home  are  sending  funds  to  distressed 
relatives  here. 


15 

The  commerce  of  a  country  favorably  situated  to  engage  in  nav- 
igation, furnishes  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  prosperity,  while  a 
loss  in  commerce  is  a  certain  proof,  ot  decline.  Emerson,  com- 
menting on  the  prosperity  of  England,  says:  4t  The  foundations 
of  its  greatness  are  the  rolling  waves.  More  than  the  diamond 
kohinoor  which  glitters  among  their  crown  jewels,  they  prize  that 
dull  pebble,  which  is  wiser  than  a  man,  whose  poles  turn  them- 
selves to  the  poles  of  the  world,  and  whose  axis  is  parallel  to  the 
axis  of  the  world."  "Forty  thousand  ships,''  he  adds,  "are  en- 
tered in  Lloyds'  lists."  Our  poet-philosopher  marvels  not  that  all 
Englishmen  join  in  the  vaunt  of  Pope: 

"'  Let  India  boast  her  palms;  nor  envy  we 

The  weeping-  amber,  nor  the  spicy  tree, 

Since  by  our  oaks,  these  precious  loads  are  borne, 

And  realms  commanded  which  these  trees  adorn." 

In  1776  we  complained  of  the  King  of  England  "  for  cutting 
off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world,"  and  went  to  war  about 
it.  Quite  recently  we  gave  up  that  trade  without  striking  a  blow. 
Two  years  ago  seventy  per  cent,  of  our  exports  and  imports  were 
transported  in  foreign  bottoms,  while  tifteen  years  before,  eighty 
per  cent,  of  our  commerce  was  carried  in  American  vessels. 

We  have  driven  tish  to  foreign  streams  by  building  dams  across 
our  own.  We  have  destroyed  the  water-power  on  hundreds  of 
streams  by  cutting  down  the  forests  along  their  banks.  We  have 
increased  the  production  of  weeds,  while  we  have  diminished  the 
yield  of  valuable  plants.  We  have  wantonly  destroyed  harmless 
birds,  so  that  harmful  insects  come  in  clouds  to  destroy  our  cul- 
tivated crops.  Not  content  with  killing  the  hen  that  laid  the 
golden  egg,  we  are  pursuing  the  turkey,  goose,  and  duck  that  lay 
eggs  of  silver,  nickel  and  copper. 

It  is  true  we  have  built  many  thousands  of  miles  of  railroad;  and 
it  is  also  true  that  the  history  of  their  construction  and  management 
is  a  reproach  to  the  nation.  We  have  many  public  works  and  pub- 
lic buildings  constructed  by  borrowed  money.  We  have  many  in- 
fant manufactures,  that  are  being  brought  up  by  the  fashionable 
process  of  wet  nursing,  and  some  that  have  reached  mature  years, 
which  are  constantly  sending  forth  a  baby-cry  for  assistance. 
We  have  increased  very  rapidly  in  population,  but  no  class  has 
increased  so  fast  as  tramps  and  paupers.  We  have  much  volun- 
tary industry,  and  much  enforced  idleness.  We  have  expended 


16 

tens  of  millions  on  courts  of  justice,  jails,  and  prisons,  but  life  and 
property  were  never  as  insecure  as  now.  At  the  close  of  the  most 
Dountiful  harvest  ever  gathered,  there  will  be  more  persons  de- 
manding the  bread  of  charity  than  were  ever  known  before. 
Growth  and  decay  are  nearer  together  with  us,  as  respects  both 
space  and  time,  than  in  any  country  in  the  cvilized  world. 

CONCLUSION. 

In  the  arch  of  the  firmament  that  spans  this  beautiful  state  let 
the  star  of  empire  pause  in  its  western  course.  In  its  effulgent 
beams  let  a  better  and  grander  civilization  develop  than  the 
world  has  ever  known.  Let  the  errors  that  appear  in  the  past 
history  of  other  communities  have  no  place  in  the  future  history 
of  this  commonwealth.  Let  the  follies  and  vices  that  have  served 
to  bring  other  portions  of  the  country  into  disrepute  operate  to 
insure  wisdom  arid  virtue  here. 

Men  of  Nebraska,  you  have  appropriated  the  last  portion  of  the 
national  domain  that  is  naturally  adapted  to  general  agriculture. 
You  have  settled  upon  a  soil  productive  almost  beyond  compari- 
son. It  behooves  you  to  guard  well  the  treasure  you  have  taken 
in  your  possession.  It  becomes  you  to  reverse  the  'order  of  pro- 
ceedings that  others  have  followed  out,  to  give  to  posterity  this 
beautiful  region  in  better  condition  than  you  received  it. 

Over  this  soil  which  has  accumulated  fertility  for  untold  cen. 
turies,  may  the  ears  of  corn  rise  higher  during  each  successive 
year.  In  this  air  purified  by  yonder  mountains,  skirted  by  ever- 
greens and  capped  by  snow — may  the  grassy  pennons  wave 
thicker  every  season  they  are  unfurled.  And  may  the  formation 
of  the  society  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  address,  mark  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  American  agriculture,  the  commencement 
of  the  era  of  progress  and  reform. 


